Staying Positive & Productive

It was a slightly more relaxed week for medical school and I felt like I had more time to do the things I enjoyed. I almost become complacent and just went through the motions by going to lectures and going home, with minimal review of content. It was easy to be happy but hard to be productive. Striking that balance has been a challenge for me because I just love to have fun. I think everyone does, but my itch might be greater than others. I have had so much stimulus for fun for the past two years and it’s hard to give it up. I am still struggling to be productive. The best way for me to accomplish that has been to take everything one step at a time. I try not to overwhelm myself and I take breaks often. The trouble comes when the break becomes 1 hour or 2 hours and you have not accomplished what you hoped to achieve for the day.

How do you come back from that? I know that might be a stressful situation, but learning to forgive yourself is key to maintaining a positive mindset. Otherwise you might lose your motivation entirely. Positivity comes naturally to me, after some life getting in the way, I always try to twist the outcome in a positive way. In an accident, I would look at a silver lining, being grateful for my life. In school, I think to myself, how privileged I am to be in higher education. Forgiving myself has been a great part of how I continue to stay motivated to study. It’s not always fun, but it can be if you make it a game or a story.

I’m still working on the productivity part. In fact, I am procrastinating a little bit by writing this, but I think this allows me to be mindful. One thing I have learned this week is to shoulder the burden on something other than yourself. I have noticed that people with religion do this by praying, I suppose I pray in some way too. I am not religious but I do feel there is something larger than myself. Not sure if I call that atheism due to the lack of a “god” or agnostic. I don’t like labels anyway… In any case, I like the idea of having someone else shoulder that burden with you. It can be with friends too if you have the self-discipline to work on your own tasks, but I know I get distracted very easily. Essentially, find what works for you and just remember that you are not on your own. You have the vast interwebs of supportive people like I aspire to be for you at the very least. You can always leave a comment and I am likely to respond. If you have a religion–GREAT! I never grew up with it so I just can’t see myself learning from scratch at this moment. Obviously, you still need to take some responsibility for your future, but don’t take life too seriously it is more fun that way and a happy person is a more productive person (at least that’s how I feel).

Those are my thoughts for this week, let me know if you have other thoughts or suggestions via the comments below or feel free to email me at alifeinair@gmail.com